Toby Gerhart: 'The initial thought was that I destroyed my knee'

In the first quarter of the Jacksonville Jaguars loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, running back Toby Gerhart was horse-collar tackled by defensive end Fletcher Cox. The penalty looked serious, and Gerhart immediately went to the sidelines.

CBS announcers originally reported that it looked like a knee injury, and that assumption was shared by Gerhart only he thought it could have potentially ended his season.

According to Ryan O'Halloran, Gerhart was afraid he'd done serious damage to his leg and his knee, saying on Thursday, "The initial thought was that I destroyed my knee and I thought my leg was broken, too. My mind was in panic mode, the way it felt, how everything was stretched out in my knee. It really hurt."

Cameras followed Gerhart over the next few minutes as he attempted to walk off the injury on the sidelines.

"The [other] thing that flashed through my mind was, ‘No way. First chance to start and be ‘The Guy.’ I just wanted to be on the field. We were rolling at that point and I wanted to keep adding to it and make a difference and make an impact. But after everything checked out, I was excited to get it wrapped up, spit on it, and get back out there."

Gerhart, however, came back into the game, but was clearly hampered from what turned out to be an ankle injury. He finished with only 42 yards on 18 carries. This week he was held out of Wednesday's practice, but came back for limited participation on Thursday, and should be ready to roll on Sunday against Washington.

"It’s progressing a lot faster than an ankle injury that I had in the past."